This one pretty sound mechanically, rebuilt motor, clutch, intake/exhaust with Weber down draft on AL manifold and cast exhaust off in favor of a header. DEQs, has CAT in system. Few crates of parts new and old...

Interior terrible, but the bones seems good. Registered and driven until last year for 8 years.

Hardtop, rag top, tonneau... Shelby wheels, the pain begins.

Guy gave me a bumper sticker that sez: "All parts falling off this car are of the finest Genuine British workmanship" [corrected]

Last edited by Sparky on 10/26/17 2:46 PM; edited 1 time in total

dfcasJoined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 2524
Location: hillbilly heaven

10/26/17 2:40 PM

You certainly are brave:)

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

10/26/17 2:44 PM

Or insane...

KerryIronsJoined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 2940
Location: Midland, MI

10/27/17 8:21 AM

Color

Definitely repaint to British Racing Green with a white racing stripe (or double offset stripe). Congrats on your new hobby.

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

10/27/17 9:39 AM

Paint likely to be red with union jack adornments. The color actually was a strong turn off for me. But I went to look at it anyway.

The night before i got there it got a hotwire theft attempt. The guy i think in fear of a repeat and successful visit prompted an agressive lowest accepted offer that got my imeadiate attention. So i have some steering column shroud pieces to repair or replace..

I deemed the paint was less of a bad the the turn key state was a good. The price I felt was just more good to sway me.

That is the sellers trailer, he also helped in the get it to my house dept. Plates expired or I'd have driven it probably... maybe.

I also inherited his stash from the MG flea market visits. Which includes a good drivers door, dash pieces, a cover for when the hard top is off and the top is down to cover the frame, and a cockpit tonneau. Not to mention a few crates of under the hood parts. Including the original intake/cab/exhaust setup which will be going on eBay. Extra new parts for when things British follow their destiny...

Let the games begin...

On a side note: I am already not minding the rubber baby buggy bumpers. I used to avoid looking at cars the years after these started coming on these...

dan emeryJoined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6075
Location: Maine

10/27/17 3:29 PM

Mid Life Crisis

In more ways than one......:)

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

10/27/17 4:18 PM

Been in that state for maybe 15 years and counting...

walterJoined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 4365
Location: metro-motown-area

10/28/17 7:06 AM

my buddy's dad in highschool had the same car!

same turd-brown color, too! he was an engineer with rockwell intl at the time, got sick of the electrical gremlins and re-did the entire harness!

Steve B.Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Posts: 705
Location: Long Island, NY

10/28/17 8:19 AM

Brave indeed. I had a Midget when I was 20, commuted in it. My brother had a B.

Never again please, fookin Brits, who told them they knew how to make cars ?

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

10/28/17 8:30 AM

"who told them they knew how to make cars "

Frederick Simms and Gottlieb Daimler?

"I had a Midget..., commuted in it."

Real question is, what made you think you could do that? ;)

I have had a lot of cars over lots of decades.

Except maybe electrical from the 60s, Brits car never seemed any worse or better than the other early Saab, VWs, Fiat, Alphas, etc I toyed with. The 6 volt VWs left a lot to be desired in the Lucas scheme of electrical design. Nothing like a car with lights that always look like a flashlight in the last 2 minutes of battery life continually.

And this MG is 78, American Cars were so much better? What 70s American car was any better, I don't recall. And by 19 years old I opted out of the imports for US muscle cars and big blocks.

It was all pretty crappy stuff AFAIC.

By mid 80s all my car were 4x4 US trucks after 2-3 years of 2WD trucks... US does trucks pretty well and seems to always have done.

I am sure if Elaine was not a Brit, this MG would be late a 40s Chevy or Dodge.

dan emeryJoined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6075
Location: Maine

10/28/17 9:37 AM

old cars

I'd love a 2 stroke Saab 96 but I give myself credit for being smart enough not to buy one.

But if a gorgeous DS 19 or 21 was available, any semblance of intelligence might go out the window....

Matthew CurrieJoined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 769
Location: Vermont

10/28/17 10:16 AM

I'v'e probably mentioned this before, but way back in the dreamtime my dad had a couple of those Saab 96's, and I did some of my learning to drive on one. It was an amazing experience to be passing on a downhill with the engine idling, and also rather amusing that one of them blew beautiful smoke rings at idle. It was also possible, I found to my dismay once, to make the engine run backwards. And I'm quite sure I've mentioned before that those old Saabs had the most radical understeer I've ever seen. If you powered into a curve it simply would not go through it at all. If you backed off the throttle it would jump suddenly into the turn. Hit the brakes at the wrong time, and the thing would do a pirouette on the front wheels.

The ads at the time touted that the engine had only seven moving parts. My dad quipped, "yeah, six squirrels and a cat with a whip."

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

10/28/17 10:37 AM

"But if a gorgeous DS 19 or 21"

Me too, drove a friend ID-19 a lot for a bit and lust permanently set in.

SAAB 96s in my family. I loved the column shifts on the Citroen and SAABs. Especially having driven a few 'American' car and vans interpretation of column shifting linkage. I have put many a floor shift in column shift cars/van/PUs as a young wrench. They were bad enough new, no less well used.

My first new car was a 78 Chevy C-10 base 2WD pickup. Straight 6 with 3 on the column. It had a 4 speed Saginaw with a Hurst floor shift within 6 months.

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

10/28/17 10:50 AM

BTW, see the trend here with toys.

Vintage Swedish Crescent, The Kobe, my Lugged Reynolds steely.

My reverse on the Domane RSL. Yesterdays road ride reinforces why I have come to dislike road riding more and more. Why get more expensive and another road bike.

Drunk passenger tried a door trick on me as I came up the right at a light. They where 3 cars back and had gone over the double yellow to pass me and cut back in to get up the the bumper of the second car sitting at the light. I was 2' or so from white line due to no shoulder. But I wound up traversing a narrow muddy tire ditch onto some grass to miss the door. If that was my wife she'd have gone down. 10 years ago I would have got myself into some physical altercation over less. But road shoes/cleat and fighting on pavement against two moron not a good choice. So I just did the mouth service routine as to have all the other cars there become witnesses in case.

There, vented out... ;)

Steve B.Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Posts: 705
Location: Long Island, NY

10/28/17 3:12 PM

When I stated I was 20 when I owned my MB Midget, along with that is the assumption that I was stupid. I followed up at age 21 with a Gremlin, so still stupid. My buddies called it “The Lead Sled”

Fear not, I have migrated to Subaru’s the past 20 years.

Marc N.Joined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 448
Location: Israel

10/29/17 2:01 AM

Datsun

While I never owned a MG, I did have the misfortune of owning a Datsun 2000. Whatever experience you might have had with the MG, I guarantee that it couldn`t have been worse than what I went through with the Datsun.

Matthew CurrieJoined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 769
Location: Vermont

10/29/17 9:10 AM

WRT column shifts, I was sort of torn on this, having grown up mainly driving Peugeots. The old 403's had an odd shift pattern, a standard 3-speed H with fourth added on, so you'd go through the first three as with a 3-speed, then, at a designated speed (40 by the book) you'd give a mighty grunt and jam the lever up and out past second. My last Peugeot, and the only new car I've ever owned, was a 68 404, with four on the column in a standard four speed pattern, and it was such a perfect, buttery smooth shifter that people riding with me often thought it was an automatic. Not only was it fairly tight, it was so light in action that it could be shifted with a flip of the finger.

The old Saab 96 with two stroke and freewheeling could be downshifted without the clutch, and for this, the column shift worked pretty nicely too.

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

10/29/17 9:55 AM

"four on the column in a standard four speed pattern, and it was such a perfect, buttery smooth shifter"

Not to mention a totally more ergo motion being that your right arm was already there using the same motion to steer. The quality of the mechanism making it even better IMO.

13ollocksJoined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 413
Location: Chapel Hill, NC

10/31/17 10:35 PM

Small Leaky Cars

Good for you. I drive a '72 TR6 - 2.5 liter straight 6, 4 sp plus overdrive. I rebuilt it from the ground up over 18 months ~5 years ago. Objectively one of the worst cars I have ever owned - noisy, creaky, smelly, with a splendidly agricultural gearshift, and bereft of almost every creature comfort and safety feature, but when you're zipping around the country twisties, with the 6 roaring in your ears and your arse about 10" off the asphalt, the fun factor is off the charts.

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

11/7/17 2:59 PM

I am a little slow on the uptake I guess.

The MG has reverse down to the left, which seemed odd to me. With some help with a discussion with my eldest, it occurred to the grey matter. It is the same trans as the right hand drive UK cars where that would be more... congruent, lets say...

Pat ClancyJoined: 13 Jan 2004
Posts: 1350
Location: Manchester, CT

11/8/17 3:40 PM

Mr. Smith and Mr. Lucas thank you for your continued business. Would you like to get on the automated replacement parts plan?

Brian NystromJoined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 4189
Location: Nashua, NH

11/8/17 5:06 PM

That plan doesn't work...

...because they're apparently using Lucas computers. ;-)

gregleporeJoined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: SE Pa, USA

11/9/17 8:15 AM

Had a 70 B. Nice enough slow car. My issue with the rubber bumper cars isn't the bumpers so much as the raised ride height and what that does to the handling.

I drive nothing but old stuff-2 90's v12 MB's and a 85 911 (turbo).

PLeeJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 3613
Location: Brooklyn, NY

11/9/17 1:42 PM

Reading all this gets me yearning for a 914/6 all over again. Greg - you should have told me when you were getting rid of yours . . .

gregleporeJoined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: SE Pa, USA

11/9/17 2:04 PM

You didn't want mine, all out racecar, cage, slicks 2.7 rs spec motor yada. It was a hoot but totally hooligan. Good original 6's are now 50k plus.